Recently, many applications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been discussed.
Navigation with WSNs is among the most heated debated ones. Previous navigation
algorithms attempt to find safe and efficient escape paths for individuals under
various environmental dynamics but ignore possible congestion caused by the individuals
rushing for the exits. Moreover, most previous works have overlooked the fact that
the emergency rescue force can take actions strategically in order to save people out of
danger. We propose an efficient Emergency Rescue Navigation strategy (ERN) by treating
WSNs as navigation infrastructure. Our approach takes both pedestrian congestion
and rescue force flexibility into account. A directed graph is used to model the emergency
regions. Human¡¦s movements are regarded as network flows on the graph. By calculating
the maximum flow and minimum cut on the graph, the system can provide
firemen rescue commands to eliminate key dangerous areas, which may significantly
reduce congestion and save trapped people. We have performed extensive simulations
under dynamic environments to evaluate the effectiveness and response time of our work.
Simulation results show that, with our strategy, people in emergency are evacuated much
faster and less congestion is observed.